Programme Changes

Hi Jazz Fans

We’ve had to make some alterations to our festival programme. The downside is, of course, these are too late for the official programme.
However, they will be on the website programme very soon. The upside is that we have two great new venues, Old Orleans on Broad Street, La Tasca at Star City and Emirates Beach at Chamberlain Square.

You’ll also get to hear a lot more of Hungary’s Budapest Ragtime Band and USA’s Suzahn Fiering.

Here are the changes in full.

Saturday 5th July
DELETE 20.30 Queens Arms, Dixieland Crackerjacks (the Netherlands)
ADD 19.00 Old Orleans, Dixieland Crackerjacks (the Netherlands)

Sunday 6th July
ADD 15.00 The Bartons Arms, Indigo Blues Band

Thursday 10th July
TIME CHANGE, NOW 16.00 House of Fraser, Suzahn Fiering (USA)
ADD 19.30 Old Orleans, Suzahn Fiering (USA)

Friday 11th July
ADD 12.00 Emirates Beach, Becky Brine
ADD 18.00 The Arcadian, Budapest Ragtime Band (Hungary)
ADD 19.00 Old Orleans, Bobby Woods

Saturday 12th July
ADD 19.00 Old Orleans, Budapest Ragtime Band (Hungary)
DELETE 20.30 Queens Arms, Jonny Boston with Richard Hughes Trio
ADD 13.00 La Tasca, Star City, Budapest Ragtime Band (Hungary)

Sunday 13th July
DELETE 20.00 The Living Room, The Fabulous Boogie Boys

All the Best

Virtuoso says hello

Hey Jazz Fans (I've always wanted to say that)

We've been gathering some performance videos for our upcoming artist biographies page, and Django's Castle, led by the wonderful Pere Soto, made us this lovely little video, completely dedicated to us entitled hello Birmingham.
Watch and Enjoy

If this aint the blues

This year sees the presentation of a fully-fledged Blues Festival weekend at the Asylum in Hockley, the first specialised Blues event in 24 years of Festival history. The Headliners are Bill Sheffield from Atlanta, Georgia and Lightnin Willie and the Poorboys from Houston, Texas currently located in Los Angeles. The Festival will introduce the astonishing new blues guitar talent Oli Brown, alongside veteran blues stars the Cadillac Kings. There will be an intriguing evening of the best blues girls entitled ‘Wild Women Get The Blues’, an open mic free blues session organised by and featuring Poor Bob, who also appears as a guest with Bill Sheffield and Lightnin’ Willie. Produced in conjunction with leading UK blues magazine ‘Blues in Britain’.

If the BBC says it.....

We've recently been featured by the BBC and thought you would want to take a peak.

follow the link below,
Follow me
Also, our programmes are now available at all our venues (as described in the venue list) and at Birmingham libraries but if you're further afield don't forget to send a stamped addressed A5 envelope to
Big Bear Music Group
PO Box 944
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B16 8UT
for a copy of our programme.

Singin' along

At 12 noon and 5pm on July 5th we're asking for some audience participation. At St. Martin's in the Bullring and then later at Atrix Arts Centre in Bromsgrove, Debbie Jones from Tipitina is holding choir workshops. No singing experience is neccessary (although having some won't hinder you at all ;) and all ages are welcome. The workshop will be fun and informal, yet you can still learn lots about choral and vocal techniques including breathing, improvisation, gospel and jazz styles.

Debbie Jones not only fronts Tipitina but sings with the One Voice and Urban Voice gospel choirs and has appeared on BBC1's Christmas Voices singing lead vocals. Her general love of music and commitment to the art form means that you will be in great hands.

Jazz on film

You could be forgiven that the 24th Birmingham International Jazz Festival was just about music but in fact, this year more than any other, it's about much more than that.

This year we have an inhouse photographer by the name of Merlin Daleman. He is based in North Brabant in the Netherlands and has worked at both the Birmingham and Marbella Jazz Festivals as a leader in jazz photography. He contributes regularly to Dutch Daily newspapers and we are delighted to have him back this year. To find out more visit http://www.merlindaleman.com/
A collection of photos from last year's event by Merlin are being displayed at City Inn from the start of the festival where they will remain for four months before going on tour to all the City Inns in the UK.

Showing at the wonderful Electric Cinema in Station Street, the oldest working cinema in the UK (first opened 1909) on the 11th, 12th and 13th at 18.30 is Let's Get Lost, Bruce Weber's Academy Award-nominated film about the great jazz trumpeter Chet Baker. This widely acclaimed film won the the prestigious Critic's prize at the Venice Film Festival.

We also have the mulitalented poet Stephen 'The Doctor' Baker who when he's not fronting two different Jazz bands, offers us some amazing jazz poetry. His show is called 'Poetry in Motion' as he will be literally flitting between gigs, keeping the audience entertained in between sets. Stephen's poetry takes you through all eras of jazz and blues, and from a man described as somewhere between a Jazz-crazed offspring of a Gospel Preacher and an Oxford academic, this chicago born 'blues shouter' promises an uncompromising and unforgettable experience.

Venues

I'm sure you are all aware that the Birmingham International Jazz Festival 2008 takes place in some of the best venues in Birmingham city centre, including the Mailbox, the Bullring (indoor and outdoor), Brindleyplace, all around Broad Street and Hagley Road, the Town Hall, Symphony Hall, Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, Pavilions Shopping Centre, Moor Street Station, Hurst Street and many more.

There are however plenty of places to get involved for those who aren't based in and around Birmingham City Centre. We have events at Warwickshire Cricket Club and Taste of Birmingham at Cannon Hill Park, both in the Edgbaston area of of Birmingham. Other non central venues include; Halesowen County Cricket Club, the Big Peg and St. Paul's Square in the Jewellery Quarter, The Asylum in Hockley, The Pavilion in Perry Barr, Sutton Coldfield Traditional Jazz Club in Sutton Coldfield and the Barn in Witton.

Just outside of the city our venues includes Touchwood Centre, Sharman's Cross and Solihull Arts Complex in Solihull, Jubilee Bandstand, Bearwood Corks Club, the King's Head and Atrix in Bromsgrove, the Public in West Bromwich and The Black Country Living Museum in Dudley.

I've italicised the new venues mentioned above. Other venues we are playing for the first time include the Custard Factory, the Queen's Arms, the Crown, Copthorne Hotel, Walkabout on Broad Street, Ha Ha Bar and Grill at the Mailbox, the Plough and Harrow and the Duck Beefeater.